Welcome to Hedgehog Class!

Class Blog 6th March 2026

World Book Day 2026

This World Book Day, our classroom was bursting with colour, imagination, and excitement as we all arrived dressed as our favourite characters from our favourite stories.

Creating Our Ultimate Character Profiles

Once we’d shown off our costumes, we each created an Ultimate Story Character Profile based on who we were dressed as.

We then shrank our profiles down, turning them into our very own set of character playing cards. Everyone received a copy of the full class set so we could play games inspired by Top Trumps.

BBC Teach Live Lesson: Discovering Our Reading Vibe

Next, we joined the BBC Teach Live Lesson for World Book Day. We completed challenges designed to help us discover our ‘reading vibe’.

This helped us think about how reading can be more than something we do at school…reading can be a hobby, and choosing the right kind of book makes all the difference!

Whole School Book Share

After finding out our reading vibes, the Year 2 children chose their favourite types of books and grouped up based on the genres they enjoyed most, these included books about: sports, animals, magic, monsters, mermaids, and nonfiction. Together, we headed to the library and selected books that matched each group’s reading vibe.

Then we invited the younger children to join us! They chose a group that matched their own interests, and we spent time reading to them, sharing stories, and recommending books they might enjoy.

It was lovely to see the Year 2’s becoming reading role models and the younger children so enthusiastic about choosing their next book!

Creating Our Own Bookworm Bookmarks

To finish, everyone designed their own personalised bookworm bookmark - the perfect accessory for our new reading hobby!

With these bookmarks and our new understanding of our reading vibes, we’re ready to dive into stories that excite us, inspire us, and spark our imagination.

What an incredible World Book Day!
We laughed, we learned, we read, and we discovered the kind of readers we want to be.

Here’s to making reading for pleasure a part of our everyday lives!

Class Blog 27th February 2026

This week our Year 2’s had an exciting visit from SHAPE, who hosted a brilliant physical activity morning for us. We learned how to play three new playground games, and each one helped us work together as a team. Our favourite game was collecting treasure for our colour groups, and everyone tried their best to win points. We ran, chased, laughed, and had so much fun learning new ways to stay active. Now we can’t wait to be play leaders at lunchtime and teach the other children how to play these amazing games too!

Class Blog 6th February 2026

This week, we were delighted to welcome our parents and families into school for our Learning Showcase. The children were so excited to share all the brilliant work they’ve been doing, and it was wonderful to see our classroom filled with proud smiles.

The children showed their fantastic adventure stories inspired by Traction Man. They loved explaining their characters, settings, and all the imaginative missions they created. It was lovely to see how confident they were when talking about their writing.

Parents also got to explore our history work all about the invention of LEGO. The children have learned about how LEGO was created, how it has changed over time, and why it has become such a popular toy around the world.

In maths, we’ve been learning all about money. To put our skills into action, we created our very own Year 2 Toy Shop. The children demonstrated how to add different amounts in more than one way and how to choose the correct coins.

It was fantastic to see so many families join us and celebrate the children’s hard work. Thank you for coming and making the afternoon so special.

The children were incredibly proud of themselves, and so were we!

Class Blog 30th January 2026

What an exciting week we’ve had in Year 2. Our classroom has been buzzing with curious minds, busy hands, and lots of brilliant scientific thinking. The children have really enjoyed becoming little investigators and learning all about materials and the different properties they have.

To begin, we talked about what a material is and why objects are made from different things. We looked at items we use every day and thought about questions like: Why isn’t a raincoat made of paper? Why don’t we drink from cups made of fabric?

Then came our big investigation. Working in groups, the children explored a range of objects made from materials such as plastic, metal, wood, fabric, rubber, and glass. Their challenge was to test each item and decide whether it was:

• Bendy – can it bend easily?
• Stiff – does it stay firm?
• Waterproof – does it keep water out?
• Absorbent – does it soak water up?
• Transparent – can we see through it?
• Opaque – does it block the light?

The children worked together to complete a table and record the properties of each material, thinking carefully about their results and checking their ideas with their partners.

We were so impressed with how sensible, focused, and enthusiastic the children were throughout the investigation. They showed real curiosity and a brilliant attitude to learning – just like real scientists!

Class Blog 23rd January 2026

This week in Year 2, we’ve been diving into our exciting new topic: Let’s Get Moving! As part of our history learning, we explored a wonderful collection of old toys and compared them to the toys we enjoy today.

The children were fascinated to discover how different toys used to be. Some were made from wood, some from metal, and others from fabric — which linked perfectly to our science work on materials. We talked about why certain materials were used in the past and how toys have changed over time.

A very special highlight of the week was when one of our students’ fantastic grandads brought in some of his old toy cars. The children were amazed at how different they looked compared to the colourful plastic cars we play with now. It was a brilliant chance to see real history up close.

Class Blog 16th January 2026

We’ve had a productive and engaging week in Year 2, with lots of focused learning taking place across the curriculum.

In maths, we have been exploring 3D shapes and symmetry. The children have taken part in a variety of activities to deepen their understanding, including playing ‘Guess My Shape’ using clues about properties, matching 3D shapes to their correct features, identifying lines of symmetry in different shapes and using mirrors to create their own symmetrical patterns and pictures. The children tackled each task with enthusiasm and showed growing confidence in using mathematical vocabulary.

In English, we have been preparing to write our own Traction Man adventure stories. To get ready, the children have been practising how to use conjunctions to extend their sentences and add more detail. This work will support them as they begin drafting their stories next week, helping them to create clear, exciting and well-structured narratives.

Class Blog 9th January 2026

We hope you all had a wonderful break and are as excited as we are to begin a brand‑new year of learning in Year 2. The children have returned full of energy, curiosity, and big smiles, and we’ve already been busy diving into our first maths focus of the term.

This week, the children have been exploring doubling and halving numbers during our Mastering Number sessions. They’ve shown fantastic enthusiasm and growing confidence as they practised spotting doubles and thinking carefully about how numbers can be split in half.

We played a brilliant game inspired by Connect 4. The children rolled a dice, chose whether to double or halve the number, and then placed a counter on the matching answer on the game board. It was a wonderful mix of strategy, number knowledge, and friendly competition.

We’re so proud of how confidently the children have started the year, and we can’t wait to share more of our learning journey with you over the coming weeks.

Here’s to a fantastic year ahead!

Class Blog 5th December 2025

Our classroom Christmas tree is sparkling with decorations made by the children, each one colourful and unique. The tree looks magical and brings lots of festive cheer to our room. But our cheeky elf couldn’t resist joining in the fun and wrote the number 67 all over the whiteboard! The children laughed and love spotting the elf’s silly tricks each day.

Class Blog 28th November 2025

Year 2 have been practising their number bonds to 10, 20 and 100. The children enjoyed spotting patterns and finding pairs of numbers that fit together perfectly. They worked hard to remember the facts quickly and show them using part-part whole models. Everyone is becoming more confident with number bonds and proud of their speedy maths skills.

Class Blog 21st November 2025

This term, Year 2 have been learning about a very special secret hidden in Ince Piece Woods, right here in Eckington. During World War II, the woods were used as a “Starfish site.” That means lights were hung in the trees to make it look like the city of Sheffield at night.

The clever plan was to trick German pilots flying overhead. Instead of dropping bombs on Sheffield, they were fooled into thinking the woods were the city. This helped keep Sheffield and its people safe.

The children loved finding out that something so important happened so close to their school.

Class Blog 14th November 2025

This week, we explored Remembrance Day and created beautiful wreaths to honour those who served. We also learned the story of Rama and Sita, which inspired the Hindu festival of Diwali. It was a week full of reflection, creativity, and cultural discovery.

Class Blog 7th November 2025

We learned how to stay safe on Bonfire Night and made informative posters to share our tips. We also explored the Zones of Regulation, helping us understand our emotions and how to return to the green zone when we feel overwhelmed. A week of safety and self-awareness!

Class Blog 10th October 2025

This week, we embarked on a wonderful journey to Greece without even leaving the classroom! We all hopped on our flight before getting our passports stamped at passport control.

Once we arrived in Greece, we made our own Greek flags whilst listening to traditional Greek music and then had a go at learning some Greek phrases and writing our names using the Greek alphabet.

Next, we explored Greek mythology and learned about six of the most famous gods and goddesses: Hades, the ruler of the underworld; Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty; Hera, queen of the gods; Zeus, the mighty god of the sky; Athena, goddess of wisdom and war; and Poseidon, god of the sea.

We joined in some traditional Greek dancing led by the amazing Hannah, who showed us how to step, spin, and clap in rhythm. The energy was infectious, and even the shyest dancers couldn’t resist joining in. Laughter and joy filled the room as we twirled and stomped to the beat.

Then came the taste test! We sampled two classic Greek foods: olives and feta cheese. Out of 21 children, only 3 liked the cheese, and just 1 out of 21 enjoyed the olives. The consensus? “Too salty!” But everyone gave it a try, and that’s what counts!

To wrap up our day, we got our hands messy with clay as we attempted to make traditional Greek amphora vases. These ancient vessels were used for storing wine, oil, and water, and we tried to replicate their elegant shapes. It was trickier than expected—especially crafting the delicate handles—but the children showed great perseverance and creativity.

All in all, our Greek day was a huge success. We learned so much about the culture, language, history, and traditions of Greece, and most importantly, we had a brilliant time doing it.

 Opa!

Class Blog 3rd October 2025

This week, in science we have been learning about the conditions in which plants need to grow.

We set up two different experiments, one to observe the germination process of a bean, and one to find out the best conditions for cress to grow. From our experiments we saw how a bean splits open during the germination process to form the stem and roots. From our comparative experiment we found that plants need water, sunlight and warmth to grow healthily.

Class Blog 19th September 2025

This week, in science we have been learning about the plants in our school grounds.

We observed a range of plants and trees around our school grounds and researched them to find out their names and species. We then recorded our findings neatly like real Botanists!

Class Blog 12th September 2025

This week, in maths we have been learning about place value.

We looked at how two-digit numbers can be partitioned into tens and ones and showed this using a part-part whole model.